CC BY
4A gricultural
Bulletin of Stavropol Regi
Stavropol Region
= № 4(24)/2 Supplement, 2016
UDK 338.48
Kloczko-Gajewska A.
THE NETWORKS OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VILLAGES AND SUSTAINABLE TOURISM - BASIC FACTS AND SOME QUESTIONS
Abstract: The concept of sustainable tourism, concerns tourism that basically wisely uses and conserves resources in to maintain their long-term viability. The networks of the most beautiful villages aims at gaining additional income from tourism while taking care of local heritage and architectonic order. It seems they are successful,
but there is a field for deeper research and international comparisons.
Key words: sustainable tourism, network, beautiful villages, income from tourism.
Ktoczko-Gajewska A. -
Ph.D., Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW Nowoursynowska, 166, Warsaw, Poland Tel.: (+48) 59 340 29 E-mail: anna_kloczko_gajewska@sggw.pl.
Introduction
Tourism is often seen as a chance to develop a region or a country. However, aside from the benefits of traditionally understood mass tourism, also its drawbacks have to be taken into account [2]. Among others, tourism generates direct benefits to those selling goods and services, as well as indirect benefits through the multiplier effect. It also creates labour intense employment, especially for the unskilled workforce, and stimulates regional development. As for less tangible aspects, it promotes cross-cultural understanding and is an incentive to preserve natural and cultural heritage. On the other hand there are some problems with obtaining these positive effects, there are also some negative consequences of tourism (especially unregulated mass tourism). Direct revenues from tourism are usually seasonal and are lowered by the costs of marketing, administration, and public infrastructure maintenance. Indirect revenues might leak due to importation of goods and services as well as profit repatriation. Employment is seasonal, often low-paid, and part-time. Congestion of tourists and financial disparities might cause cross-cultural conflict. Last but not least, local culture can be modi-fled and the environment can be degraded by development of tourist activities. As Marzetti et. al. have written, «...mass tourism may be desirable from the economic point of view because it increases the local aggregate income, but from the social and ecological perspective it can be damaging...».To avoid costs of the mass tourism, an idea of alternative or small-scale, locally-controlled or sustainable tourism emerged [4].
Basically, sustainable tourism can be described as applying of the sustainable development concept to tourism sector - «tourism that wisely uses and conserves resources in order to maintain their long-term viability»[2]. Being more precise, it is a concept «created to critically explore, foster and implement
the idea of more sustainable forms of tourism in order to reduce pressure on the environment, societies, heritage and culture, while spreading benefits equitably, including between hosts and guests»[3]. Sustainability has many different aspects - not only taking care for natural environment (for example through waste disposal, energy efficiency or light pollution), but also through cultural sustainability (adjusting to local architectural norms and preference for native plants) and visitor management strategies that do not allow too high congestion of tourists [2]. The next section will describe a movement that has some features of sustainable tourism.
Networks of the most beautiful villages7
The idea to create a network of the most beautiful villages emerged in France at the beginning of 1980s. At that time a significant migration from villages to cities was observed, which resulted in depopulation of rural areas. Moreover, rural communities had problems with renovating historical buildings due to the lack of money. One of the mayors, inspired by a book titled «The most beautiful villages of France», contacted 100 mayors of other villages mentioned in this publication and offered cooperation. In March 1982 66 mayors created an association whose aim was to sustain, promote, and develop beautiful, historical villages with traditional architecture and natural conditions. Basing on French experience, similar associations were soon created in Wallonia (Belgium) (1994), Quebec (Canada) (1998), Italy (2001), and Japan (2005).
Similarly as in France, the networks in Quebec and Italy were created in order to diminish out-migration from the villages. Quite differently, in Wallonia the problem to solve was too high migration into the
7 If not stated otherwise, information in this section comes from the book „Les plus beaux villages : de l'expérience française au développement international - Most Beautiful Villages: The french experience and other foreign development's
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Table 1 - Basic characteristics of the networks of the most beautiful villages in selected countries
France Wallonia Quebec Italy Japan
Number of associated villages (03.2016) 153 24 38 248 49
Number of villages at the beginning 66 11 18 51 7
Year of creating the association 1982 1994 1998 2001 2005
Yearly budget of association (thousand Euros) (2012) 490 320 66 390 166
Share of member fees in the budget ( %) (2012) 63 5 19 80 28
Share of sponsors' money in the budget ( %) (2012) 10 20 58 20 40
Frequency of assessment visits (2012) every 6 years no regulations every 5 years 3 to 5 villages per year every 5 years
Source: own preparation basing on: «Les plus beaux villages: de l'expérience française au développement international - Most
Beautiful Villages: The French experience and other foreign developments», Atout France, 2013 and the websites of the as sociations.
villages, with a significant pressure to build new (not necessarily traditionally-looking) houses which endangered historical lay-out of the villages. In Japan, a reform merging small municipalities created a fear of lowering the number of villages and towns.
All of the networks of the most beautiful villages aim to support sustainable development of rural areas as well as to preserve architectural heritage in the villages, however there are minor differences in the approach between the associations. In Quebec and Japan the main stress is laid on preserving landscape and traditional way of life. In Wallonia educating the society to keep architectonic coheren-ceis one of the important aims of the organization. In Italy the main stress is laid on promoting villages as a tourist destination - the offer includes traditional food and cultural events.
After some time there were more similar associations emerging in other countries, such as Crete (Greece) (2010), Romania (2011), Saksony (Germany) (2011), Spain (2011), and Russia (2014). Five of the country associations created in 2012 an association of the world's most beautiful villages, some more are associated members, waiting for becoming full members8.
All of the country associations have sets of criteria that allow individual villages to join the country networks. The most important of them are characteristic rural architecture and landscape, followed by low density of the population and number of inhabitants (the limits differ depending on a country). In Canada, Italy, Japan, Spain, Germany, Greece, and Korea a village that wishes to join the network has to have a predefined number of historical monuments or other items of material or immaterial heritage.
All of the organizations have a legal form of a nonprofit organization - both for ideological and practical reasons, because it allows them to apply for public funds. Main directions for future development are decided on by a general assembly. In France and Japan the general assemblies also make decisions concerning the sum of member's fee paid by the vil-
8 Information from the website.
lages. All of the networks require official application containing preliminary description of the village's assets. If it meets minimal criteria, a group of experts visit the village in order to assess the quality of architecture, cultural heritage, and plans of promotion. Such report is the basis for joining the association. All of the networks carry out regular assessments of the villages, to find out if the heritage is really cared for. High demands are supposed to ensure quality of the offer, and membership fee should make them independent from grants. The networks carry out joint promotion, among others through printing leaflets, preparing websites, presence in social media, etc. Most of the networks issue official tourist guides or organize fairs of local handcraft.
As one can see in Table 1, the country networks differ according to size, yearly budget, importance of membership fees, and other features.
In French network it was observed that joining the network of the most beautiful villages can raise number of tourists by 10 %-50 %.
The most popular places face now other problems (discussed during the conference «Rural architecture - European heritage and development potential» in Obercunnersdorf, Germany) - organizing visits in such a way that tourists find peace and silence while the inhabitants keep their privacy and dignity. In certain circumstances the villagers could feel as items in a museum, which should not happen. There is a significant problem with the wastes and traffic jams during high season.
Conclusions
The networks of the most beautiful villages aim to preserve historical look of the villages (historical buildings, spatial order, natural environment). It is their official goal and the conditions to join the network support it. Additional incomes from tourism help the inhabitants to stay there and refrain from migration. From this perspective they take care of the sustainability of the villages. However, there are some more sustainability issues that need to be taken into account.
A gricultural
Bulletin of Stavropol Region
№ 4(24)/2 Supplement, 2016
Sofield (2003, p.9.), discussing the problem of sustainable tourism in Pacific Islands, wrote that «... without the element of empowerment (of local communities) tourism development on the level of community will have difficulty achieving sustainabil-ity». In the networks of the most beautiful villages the village representatives (often mayors) decide on the directions of the future development, which can be seen as empowerment of the local people. The question is, to what extent the village inhabitants truly participate in the decision-making process. How do their representatives (eg. mayors) consult with them directions of development? Does it differ among countries, are any differences within countries visible? What are the problems faced while discussing with the locals the priorities for future development?
In some more popular villages there are problems resulting from the overcrowding of tourists during high season. How strong is its impact on the natural environment, quality of life of the inhabitants and comfort of the tourists? Are there any visitor management strategies undertaken?
Some of the networks claim that they observed visible rise in the number of tourists. It would be interesting to analyze how much money is left by the tourists and how much of it is spent again on the local market (is the money not leaking back to the cities).
Probably there is some research on a local scale, but it would be interesting to compare these issues as well as long-term impact on the natural environment, incomes, and local communities (including culture and habits) both within the networks and between the countries.
REFERENCES:
1. Trevor H. B. Empowerment for Sustainable Tourism Development. Amsterdam: Pergamon, 2003.
2. Weaver D. Sustainable tourism: theory and practice. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. 2006.
3. Advocacy or neutrality? Disseminating research findings and driving change toward sustainable tourism in a fast changing world // Journal of Sustainable Tourism / BramwellB., Higham J., Lane B., Miller G. 2016. № 24:1. P. 1-7.
4. Social carrying Capacity of Mass tourist Sites: theoretical and practical issues about its measurement / Marzetti S., Brandolini D. A., Mozetti R. Northampton, 2008.
5. Les plus beaux villages: de l'expérience française au développement international -Most Beautiful Villages: The French experience and other foreign developments // Atout France. 2013.
6. Grudeva E. National peculiarities in perception of the seasons in the Russian and English languages (on phycholinguistic experiment data) // Paradigmata poznani. 2017. № 1. C. 62-65.
7. URL: http://www.borghipiubelliditalia.it/en/
8. URL: http://www.beauxvillages.be/les-villag-es.htm?lng=fr
9. URL: http://www.beauxvillages.qc.ca/web-site_english.htm
10. URL: http://www.france-beautiful-villages. org/en/about-us
11. URL: http://www.utsukushii-mura.jp/index. php
